8
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, June 3, 1983
Centenary of Jewish Immigration to the U.S.
STOWE OPTICAL '411.
PRESENTS
Launching of the Historical Tradition
0
"Alone, the individual
Jew would have been lost
many times and long ago,
but a Jew is never alone.
Being Jewish is a remedy
against solitude, for a Jew is
forever surrounded by his
community, visible or invis-
ible.
"Jews have never before
been so organically linked
to one another. If we shout
here, we are heard in Kiev.
If Jews cry in Kiev, they are
heard and worried over in
Jerusalem. And if Jews are
Paper Hits WHO
TEL AVIV (ZINS) —
Hatzofeh, newspaper of the
National Religious Party,
criticized the World Health
Organization for its report
on health services in Judea
and Samaria.
The WHO panel implied
that Israel "does not provide
residents of the 'territories'
with adequate health serv-
ices and discriminates
against them." In point of
fact, there has been a tre-
mendous improvement in
West Bank health services,
the paper says.
WHO claimed that there
has been an increase in the
number of mental cases in
Judea and Samaria due to
the tension there, but it
"kept silent" about the
"poisoning affair," ignoring
all of the professional re-
ports on the incident.
WHO "serves as a politi-
cal tool in the hands of ele-
ments hostile to Israel," the
paper concluded.
tury Jewish fertility char-
acterists contrast sharply,
with those of the current
world Jewish population.
Among other elements,
Jewish communities today
are marked by an aging
society, a high death rate,
late age marriage, a low
birth rate, along with an in-
creased divorce rate, single
person households and
single parent families, as-
similation, large-scale in-.
difference to or ignorance of
Jewish learning, high rate
of intermarriage, and, in
many cases, a superficial
sense of Jewish identity.
These combine to further
the erosion of Jewish life in
open societies in which most
Jewish communities now
live.
The very beneficence of
the American setting ex-
perienced by the immig-
rants and their descendants
poses a challenge both to
Jewish self-perception and
to the continuity of Jewish
group life. There is a danger
of a Gleichschaltung, a slow
and painless absorption and
assimilation into the seduc-
tive American mainstream.
Consequently, it is essential
to develop strategies to
maintain Jewish unique-
ness and otherness which
will not only benefit the
Jewish community but will
also strengthen and enrich
the American cultural fab-
ric.
The emerging new
American Jewish gen-
eration, a mix of Jews
whose forebears brought
differing and enriching cul-
tural and nationality
v
r
H-
(Editor's note: This
brief article is a comment
on "The Centenary of
Jewish Immigration to
the United States: 1881 to
1981," a thorough study
published in "Judaism,"
Spring 1983. The author
of this study, Joseph
Edelman, a former public
relations executive of the
Jewish Community
Council of Detroit, has
just retired from his post
as national research di-
rector of HIAS.)
Many of the children of
the pioneer immigrant gen-
eration brought home from
their public schools the lan-
guage and customs of the
new land which helped in
the "Americanization" of
that generation. Currently,
Soviet Jewish children who
attend Jewish schools in the
-U.S. bring home a new
appreciation, if not the very
beginnings, of Yiddishkeit
for their parents as the
families painfully and
slowly reconstruct new lives
founded upon human dig-
nity and Jewish values.
Soviet and other Jews
who arrived in the U.S. dur-
ing the last century from
lands of jeopardy are today
components of a thriving,
American Jewish- commu-
nity. The most numerous
and influential in Jewish
history, it has special re-
sponsibilities and obliga-
tions to Jews throughout
the world, and particularly
to Israel.
More than 80 percent of
the American Jewish popu-
lation is native born. How-
ever, there is a lively
awareness that American
Jews and, indeed, the coun-
try as a whole, is a nation of
immigrants.
Beneficiaries of both
the Jewish and American
heritages, many of the
native born American
Jews are also aware that,
but for the providential
immigration of their
fathers, grandfathers,
and other family mem-
bers, they, too, might
have been caught up in
the inferno of the
Holocaust.
Indeed, world events have
generated increased
awareness that no Jew is a
stranger wherever in the
world he might be, since he
is constantly surrounded by
a visible and invisible web
of traditional Jewish sup-
port and understanding. In
the words of Elie Wiesel,
honorary HIAS director:
sad in Jerusalem, we are
moved to tears here."
In the century between
1881 and 1981, the Ameri-
can Jewish community
increased in numbers
from 250,000 to 6,000,000,
the largest concentration
of Jews in Jewish history
and in the contemporary
Jewish world. The
phenomenal growth was
largely due to the immi-
gration of more than
3,000,000 Jews, primarily
from Eastern Europe and
principally from Russia.
The genocidal fury which
destroyed 6,000,000 Jews in
Europe also largely elimi-
nated the potential sources
of Jewish migration from
that continent to Israel, the
U.S. and other countries in
the West.
Today, as the children
and grandchildren of the
pioneer immigrant genera-
tion stand on the threshold
of tomorrow at the end of a
destiny-laden century, up-
heavals, tensions, terrorism
and, oppression in many
parts of the world continue
to spill over time lines and
international boundaries,
and impel Jews and others
to leave their lands of
domicile — when able to do
so — and to migrate to safer
havens.
Indeed, in the current
world situation the poten-
tial for Jewish migration
continues to be high.
The Jewish world has
completely changed in
the last century. De-
prived of massive Jewish
reinforcements from mi-
gration, the respective
Jewish communities
have turned inward to
further their Jewish de-
velopment indigenously.
They built upon the
Jewish historical tradi-
tion which they shared in
common -with their
forebears, along with a
sense of mutuality and
independence as a com-
munity of faith and fate.
However, the 19th Cen-
strands from throughout
the Jewish world, must as-
sume the responsibilies of
leadership and it is perhaps
instructive, as a guideline,
to recall the text of a sign in
the Museum of the Diaspora
in Tel Aviv: •
"Remember the past.
Live in the present. Believe
in the future" essential
components of Jewish con-
tinuity.
HARRY THOMAS
IS CLEANING HOUSE!
Entire stock of fine spring suits, sportcoats, slacks
will be SOLD regardless of cost.
NOW
SUITS Reg. $175 to $375
$ 1395 °
$ 1695 ° - $ 1895 °
SPORT COATS
Reg. $150 to $225
NOW $89 5° to $ 119 50
SLACKS
The
From $2450
Finest
HARRY THOMAS
Fine Men's Clothes for 48 years.
24750 Telegraph at 10
Daily to 6, Fri. to 8, SUNDAY 11-3
Alterations at cost
CHECK IN AT ASTREIN'S
CHECK OUT OUR SALE
Fresh water and round cultured pearls
Loose diamonds and colored stones
Diamond engagement rings
14kt earrings and jackets
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•6e
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120 W. Maple • Birmingham • 644-1651
THURS. — FRI. 'TH. 8:45
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EYE EXAM BY MEDICAL DOCTOR
OF OPHTHALMOLOGY (by apt.)
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0 14800 SINAI
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7001 ORCHARD LAKE RD.
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HOSPITAL)
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WEST BLOOMFIELD
273-7810
ACROSS FROM NBD 855-64770
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4*
By JOSEPH EDELMAN
19
SALE STARTS MAY 19
ENDS JUNE 18